We have a small sustaining program set up by entering the gift as a pledge and using Pledge Billing overnight to charge the credit card. However, with the amount of declined authorizations, it is becoming difficult to manage and more concerning. We are wanting to refresh this program in ways to be more secure and less likely to have outstanding payments.
Currently, we only have a handful of patrons that are giving through direct deposit and we are starting to think this should be the standard. It is more secure, but we are then faced with entering every payment in Tessitura once the electronic fund transfer (EFT) is received. If we get more donors choosing the sustaining program with the direct deposit option, I can foresee it taking a large amount of time entering every payment. Does anyone with a sustaining program using direct deposit have a way to solve this issue? Is it possible payment can be applied simultaneously to all patrons with a billing type of direct deposit? If not, what do you use that you find helpful?
Angela Hermes-Howe
Development Data Coordinator
Guthrie Theater
Hi Angela,
We only accept CC/debit cards for our sustainer program, so I am curious to hear who's doing EFT and if it's worth adding.
Regarding declined CCs, this summer many major credit card companies moved to chip-embedded cards which resulted in new expiration dates and substantial increase in declines. The last 30-60 days have been much calmer than what we saw in the summer.
MeganSeattle Symphony